Help me pick a light.

I have been reading this forum for about a week now so I am pretty sure what some of the responses I am going to get will be but here it goes anyway.

This light will primarily be used for offroad singletrack riding with some road mixed in.

Must Have's
1. Durable - I want it to be able to take a lick and keep on ticking.
2. Easy - I want to take it out of the box, charge it, mount it on bike, ride and repeat.
3. Bright - I want it to be bright enough to where I would be able to use just one light.
4. Budget - $400 or less, preferably less.

Question I have:
Is HID a dieing technology and is LED the wave of the future?

Thanks in advance for any responses. I am going to post a similar thread on other sites and see which light is most popular with the masses.

All these points have been discussed in detail and answered in so many threads here- over and over. No point rehashing it all over again. Seriously, every question you have, has been asked before and answered.

There are so many choices in the <$400 range I wouldn't know where to begin suggesting. Do some searches to narrow down what will be best for you. I am in the market for a new light and have been researching for a couple weeks, and I think I have just decided what to get.

denmike, I saw your choice in another thread. Sounds like you are going with the 200L. I like the price point on that option but I would be concerned about it being bright enough to run single track at speed.

Since you didn't mention runtime as an important factor you must go halogen. Seriously. If you can get a halogen factory light with proper housing (I'm not at home, maybe someone else will be able to help you in this), preferably with a 12V MR16 bulb, you can easily replace the original (10W? 15W? 20W?) bulb and put a more powerful one in (min 30W, but if the housing can dissipate the heat well, you can try 50W). Overvolting is also an option. Use it with a cheap lead-acid battery, which can weigh a few lbs'es, but weight was not in your list either, and you can have the whole system for much-much less than $400.
1. Durable? Depends on the housing, but bulbs are freaking cheap to replace.
2. Easy? Can you change a lightbulb yourself? :-]
3. Bright? Current 3-led systems are equivalent to roughly 25W of halogen (maybe less, depending of the bulb type), so yes, it is bright
4. Budget? Easily.

Or, if you _want_ to spend all the bucks for a state-of-the-art light, buy the L&M ARC. You can get it for around $300, and for this price it can't be beat at the moment.

Alex, Radirpok, I, and countless others have covered this over and over. It gets a bit tiring to repeat everything so you may not get the same people giving you as much detail. I suggest you look at the other threads closely and check out the 600L, Blaast, Trinewt, and ARC. It would take three more paragraphs to cover the beam patterns, weights, and other pros/cons. Even the Search function will bring up each light if you Advance Search by name.

Flyer thank you so much for the information. I do appreciate the help.

denmikseb, If you don't mind me asking what light did you decide to go with?

I am starting with the DiNotte 200L (narrow) as a helmet light to compliment my Cygolite night rover (halogen, 6w wide and 10w narrow) I already have on the bars. If the halogen quits or I decide to upgrade I think I will add a 200L (wide) to the bar. I am getting into more technical singletrack, but not too technical, I am 58 and will hurt easily but not heal easily. I think that is all the light I will need, but will see! I don't like proprietary battery packs.